Social Velocity: CNY '15 Edition

Chinese New Year is over, at least for the majority of Malaysian urbanites. It's back to work, as we busily scan our feeds for the next thing to share on Facebook. And now that the sparkler ash has settled, we can answer the burning question we've all been asking ourselves - What was The Best CNY ad?

I capitalised ‘The Best’ because the Internet is capable of more than trolling top brands YouTube accounts and reposting ads with subjective commentary. The Internet can quantifiably settle the argument - so let's do it.

On the back of last years Merdeka ad season, I proposed that Social Velocity is a reasonable measurement for crowning an effective video ad. The principal is simple - if you like something, you’ll share it. Measured as the rate at which content is being shared against the rate it is consumed, Social Velocity is like the People’s Choice Awards of advertising. (SV= Total shares / Total Views)

The Results

While none reached the Social Velocity the Maxis Merdeka ad last year (2.45%), many put on a strong show. To ensure that low viewed videos did not skew the results, winning ads must have a combined (Facebook + YouTube) view count of >50,000. In the end, 3A ads stood well above the rest.

Overall, Maxis won CNY this year, with both their ads making the top 4 and having high individual scoring. Hotlink's "Ohhsome Granny Rap" was the most shared and commented on (in a positive way). While "#ThisIsMyName" by Maxis had the highest Sentiment Rating (Likes:Dislikes ratio), rivalling Malaysia Airlines "Terbang" Sentiment Score, featuring Yuna, last Merdeka.

The sharability of an ad is typically the result of a sharp cultural insight that is powerfully executed. This year, Hotlink effectively flipped a generations old ritual. Every year aunties and poh poh's around Malaysia pass on the many pantang's & rites down to the next generation. Except this year, they did it with gusto!

The real magic of this rap is that it was written and recited in 5 different languages and dialects. Hotlink was able to make this CNY a very inclusive and very Malaysian holiday.

Honorable Mentions

Although they didn't make the cut due to a low view count (average views of the top 4 ads is 770,110 and counting), they had great Social Velocity scores, as well as high overall engagement rates and Sentiment Scores when looking at the bigger picture.

Specifically, Smirnoff's "Ongsome Happens" campaign is a good example of how a holiday ad can be part of a longer term content strategy. In a market where advertising alcohol has strict restrictions, Smirnoff was smart in their execution.

2 Things 2 Consider

1. The Soundtrack Matters:

While not a mind-blowing revelation, this CNY proved yet again that an ad with a strong score, or the ad being a song itself, is an effective way to connect with a Malaysian audience.

2. Don't Just Upload on YouTube:

Only 4 of the 11 ads analysed uploaded their ad as both YouTube & Facebook videos; as opposed to the traditional route of uploading on YouTube and posting the link. Utilising Facebook as a video platform rewarded the 4 more forward thinking brands with a 6x greater velocity rate. In fact, the 4 videos received almost as many shares on Facebook as did all 11 on YouTube combined. Congratulations to Maxis, Hotlink, Astro and Smirnoff for putting away their YouTube view count ego's and being effective in their media buys.

When you consider that Twitter has also recently introduced video, plus the growing popularity of Instagram, Snapchat and more, marketers really need to strategise how they can effectively use a single piece of content across multiple social media's.

What did you think of this years CNY ads? Did I miss one? Let me know in the comments below.

*All data is current until 25 Feb, 2015